(Los Angeles, CA) -- They struck oil again in Los Angeles yesterday, but no one was celebrating. Workers from the St. James Oil Company were forced to stop work on South Olive Street after a black goo started seeping up from the street, causing pavement two blocks away to bulge with an oily liquid goo gushing from manhole covers. The workers were injecting high-pressure hot water into old wells to extract crude oil. The "Los Angeles Times" reports the problem was so bad, authorities had to red tag the 99-year-old Iris Apartment building in the 12-hundred block of South Olive Street and evacuate the residents. The sticky glob seeped into the building's basement and may have caused damage to its foundation. The oily water could also be seen seeping through the pavement at the intersection of Pico and Olive boulevards.